The staff cheered and ran to their departments as Scheurich went to the door and yelled, "It's time!"

More than 400 shoppers had lined up outside of the store by the time it opened midnight.

The first customer had arrived at 10 a.m. Thanksgiving Day. Inside, workers started to arrive between 10 and 11 p.m.

Scheurich has worked every Black Friday since he started with the company nine years ago. The store is run differently on the traditionally busiest shopping day of the year.

"We want to make sure people are safe. It's very controlled chaos," Scheurich said.

A barricade fence was set up from the Best Buy entrance, past Pet Smart and continuing in front of Bed Bath & Beyond. At 11:30 p.m., the line went beyond that, wrapping around the corner and trailing down the side of the strip mall.

A Stroud Area Regional Police officer patrolled the line. A squad car cruised back and forth and police handled at least two instances of line-jumping by moving the jumpers to the end of the line.

Scheurich walked the line, pausing to address the crowd like a master of ceremonies. Parts of the crowd clapped and cheered as he pumped them up for the door opening. He also was there to give instructions and talk safety.

He told shoppers that everyone would not be let into the store at once. Instead, the line would move forward in waves and the store would be closed briefly if there were any problems.

Best Buy employees walked along the line asking shoppers what they were looking for and handing out tickets for specially priced items in advertisements. Shoppers were allowed just one sale item each.

Shoppers were given maps of the floor plan, which was set up as a series of mazes to keep the crowd corralled. Large product boxes created temporary maze walls inside the store and color-coded duct tape arrows on the floor guided shoppers to televisions, computers and tablets or the main checkout line.

The first sale of Black Friday was an unremarkable DVD, sold at 12:08 a.m., for which the shopper had spent hours waiting in line.

And at 4 a.m. the parking lot was still full and shoppers were still looking for deals.